Ordinary citizens embrace Western values. The elites? Not so much

[Anonymous]

The elites tell us what to believe. Putin is right, it conflicts with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin told London's influential Financial Times newspaper that Western liberal values have become outmoded; a majority of people in Western nations have rejected them.



"The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population," Putin theorized.



This set off a backlash of righteous indignation from political, cultural and media elites who insisted Putin was wrong.



They're right that Putin has no business offering opinions on the West's commitment to liberal values. He is, after all, a strongman — a sort of quasi-dictator — curtailing free expression, arresting opponents, enriching friends and supporters while having critics poisoned or assassinated.



But is he wrong about the West's commitment to free speech, human rights, due process and so on?



Among ordinary citizens of Western nations, I think liberal values are alive, although maybe not robust. Many of those values are misunderstood, but by-and-large ordinary voters still believe in them.



It's among our elites that I worry most. They no longer seem to have faith in liberal philosophy.



Political correctness has seized the minds of far too many political, cultural, business, media and academic leaders — so much so that they are now utterly intolerant in defence of PC values.



In the name of tolerance, inclusiveness and equality (the triumvirate of political correctness), elites want to shut up all those who oppose them and regulate what messages the public has a right to see.



If he were simply talking about our elites' abandonment of liberal values, Putin might be right.



While people such as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insist they still cherish traditional Western values, they then turn around and demand social media be regulated to shut up speech they dislike.



Back in May, Trudeau primped and preened on the world stage declaring that social media platforms were "failing their users" by not doing enough to weed out fake news. But is that fake news that can be demonstrably shown to be deliberately false? Or is it merely news that makes fashionable "progressives" such as Trudeau uncomfortable?



The problem with regulating speech — the reason free speech has been seen for centuries as a fundamental value the state should never tamper with — is that it is impossible to agree 100% on what is fact, what is opinion and what is false. More so, it is dangerous to put mere mortals (such as human rights tribunals) in charge of deciding what can and cannot be said.



Our governments try to regulate against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and end up with mushy, overbroad definitions that threaten to lump strong (but legitimate) opinions in with libel and hate.



Elites see nothing dangerous in putting bureaucrats, union activists and others with vested interests in charge of monitoring election messaging or doling out subsidies to newspapers. They label opinions they disagree with as "fake news" and introduce speech charters and digital charters at universities and in government.



One of the highest liberal values is the belief that in order for me to have my say, I must defend your right to have your say, no matter how obnoxious. Now, instead of understanding that, our elites want government-sanitized speech.



That's the kind of topsy-turvy logic that can lead to any criticism of identifiable groups being ruled racism. It's how the Liberals can call the treatment of Indigenous women, but not the murderous actions of ISIS, a genocide. And how our PM can convince himself we should bring home Canadian ISIS members to help us fight the radicalization of Muslim youth in Canada (because to prosecute them would constitute Islamophobia).



Maybe Putin isn't so far off when it comes to Western elites.

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/gunter-ordinary-citizens-embrace-western-values-the-elites-not-so-much">https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnis ... ot-so-much">https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/gunter-ordinary-citizens-embrace-western-values-the-elites-not-so-much

[Anonymous]

Today's left or more appropraitely prognazis are intolerant, violent and our politicians and police encourage their thuggery.

There was a time in my youth when the Left stood up for freedom of expression as means for the "working class" to speak up for their rights. Some of us went to prison and were exiled for the right to speak our minds.



Fifty years ago, whether it was the Euro-Communists in Italy and France, the Marxists in India or the CCF in Canada, the left barely breached the 30% of the vote, yet it was always looked upon with respect as selfless citizens standing up for the common working man and woman. Elsewhere in the U.K., the Fabian Socialists laid the groundwork for as revolutionary an idea as the eight-hour workday and a 40-hour work week.



Not any more, at least not in America.



Today's leftists are best reflected in ethnic vote bank politics or the goons of Antifa, who this Saturday demonstrated their intellectual bankruptcy when some of them surrounded mild-mannered journalist Andy Ngo on the streets of Portland, Ore., and beat him to the extent he had to be rushed to hospital and scanned for possible brain damage.



Andy Ngo, who writes for online publication Quillete, was born in Portland to parents who came from Vietnam as part of the "boat people." During the attack, Antifa leftists were caught on video resorting to racist sloganeering, shouting, "Go Home Andy." Another woman is heard on the video yelling, "F— you, Andy" while an attacker shouts, "Get the f— out of here."



Portland police arrested three suspects related to the weekend's violence and released photos of more suspects. Of the individuals in the latest photographs, only one appears without a mask, while the others wear traditional black Antifa garb with their faces obscured.



Who are these masked men of Antifa posing as latter-day leftists?



David Marcus of The Federalist writes, "Antifa is mostly made up of privileged white dudes." He adds that "when members of Antifa are arrested, the masks come off. And, as recent mugshots of Portland Antifa members show, these people are about as diverse as the Washington Generals."



Antifa claims to be fighting Fascism, but when it comes to Islamofascism, mum's the word. There has never been an Antifa rally outside the many ultra-right Islamic groups of America who pay homage to the Muslim Brotherhood that seeks the destruction of Western Civilization from within.



Majid Nawaz, the U.K. Muslim leader who has the wounds to show for his anti-fascism struggles tweeted: "privileged white Antifa fascists in face masks attacked gay Asian journalist @MrAndyNgo & sprayed him in the face with unknown chemicals (police later warned about quick dry cement disguised as milkshake). You Antifa are utter pond life #CtrlLeftAltRightDelete."



However, the best analysis of what ails the left today comes from Anna Slatz, who, writing about the neo-left in The Post Millennial, posed the rhetorical question: "Who are these faux revolutionaries? Where did they come from?"



Slatz writes: "They are, in short, vulgar intersectionalists. ... Intersectionality has become a running joke to most onlookers, with tinier and tinier aggrieved fragments shattering into smaller and smaller 'intersections,' each competing for status as the sublime oppressed. Whenever this is the case, no matter how much someone might insist otherwise, it is not Marxism."



The millionaire Marxists of today are sunk into the academia of slicing people into tinier and tinier segments until we are reduced to a mere extension of our genes. What was once LGBT is today LGBTQQIP2SAA, (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, 2-spirited, asexual and allies).



Should we not add a "V" to include vegans or a "D" for disabled people like me?



The left's slogan used to be "Workers of the World Unite," but today's left has changed it to, "Dolts of the World Divide."

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/fatah-the-new-left-and-its-antifa-assaults">https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnis ... a-assaults">https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/fatah-the-new-left-and-its-antifa-assaults

[Bricktop]

Putin has a point.



Western values have deteriorated to the point they demand a major reset.



The fundamental pillars of our sociological sub frame...politics, religion, justice and personal liberty are crumbling by the day.



And the support beams of a free press have all but collapsed under their weight of bias and advocacy journalism.



Democracy has been destroyed by political parties, religion has been exposed as fairy tales, justice is now applied according to colour and wealth and our personal liberty has been usurped by the trojan horse of political correctness.



Our society in its current state is unsustainable.



Putin's approval rating is in the 80% range. Trump's is in the forties.



Says it all, really.

[Anonymous]

Putin has a point.



Western values have deteriorated to the point they demand a major reset.



The fundamental pillars of our sociological sub frame...politics, religion, justice and personal liberty are crumbling by the day.



And the support beams of a free press have all but collapsed under their weight of bias and advocacy journalism.



Democracy has been destroyed by political parties, religion has been exposed as fairy tales, justice is now applied according to colour and wealth and our personal liberty has been usurped by the trojan horse of political correctness.



Our society in its current state is unsustainable.



Putin's approval rating is in the 80% range. Trump's is in the forties.



Says it all, really.

True Dope's support is lower than Trump's.

[Bricktop]

I'm surprised he has any support at all.



What a national embarrassment.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised he has any support at all.



What a national embarrassment.

I'm not really into politics anymore. I've accepted that our democracy is strictly for show. Canada is a post national state. Decisions are being made for us and not even within our own borders. True Dope is an idiot, but he is a symptom of the disease. I focus my energy on my two boys and not our joke politicians.

[Odinson]

Canada and the USA clearly have the "patrician" class families..



Families filled with politicians going back hundreds of years.





Justin is a "Trudeau" so he must be fit to be a prime-minister.

[Bricktop]

Amen.

[Anonymous]

Canada and the USA clearly have the "patrician" class families..



Families filled with politicians going back hundreds of years.





Justin is a "Trudeau" so he must be fit to be a prime-minister.

And before him we had Paul Martin, who's father almost became pm. At least Paul Martin was an extremely accomplished man.

[Anonymous]

Canada and the USA clearly have the "patrician" class families..



Families filled with politicians going back hundreds of years.





Justin is a "Trudeau" so he must be fit to be a prime-minister.

And before him we had Paul Martin, who's father almost became pm. At least Paul Martin was an extremely accomplished man.

I did read that about Paul Martin.